The Huffington Post Detroit continued their informal “let’s ponder the existential nature of Detroit” series with a group of writers’ triangulated answer to both Toby Barlow’s “yay Detroit” post and Rabbi Jason Miller’s “Detroit, respect your stepmother suburbs” response.

Nov. 30, HuffPo: We are not writing to argue over who is a 'real' Detroiter and who is not, nor who is and is not going to save Detroit. We are more interested in unpacking our region's history with a critical eye. We do this not to bring up bitter memories, or to point fingers, but because as young people raised in West Bloomfield, Farmington Hills, Huntington Woods, and Ann Arbor, now living in Detroit, we've come to believe that the way we understand and relate to our history very much informs our perspectives on Detroit's present and future.

History is important. No argument there. However, while their factual understanding of the nuisances of Detroit’s past are correct, the writers of this piece repeat a common mistake: They focus on the racial discontent of the post-World War II-era as critical to understanding today’s future.

The region’s de facto segregation is as much cultural as it is institutional. FHA-backed segregation policies didn’t cause the white flight from Southfield. The fault, dear HuffPo, lies not in our history but in ourselves.

It’s also important, since we’re talking history, to remember that problems that affected Detroit were not unique to Detroit.

Other places have made progress, albeit imperfect progress, while Detroit remains mired in the battles of a half-century ago precisely because we’re mired in the battles of a half-century ago.

Let’s be honest, no one avoids Detroit because of the 1967 riot. It’s an absurd notion. People may say that, but they’re lying—either to themselves or just to those around them. With perhaps the exception of the continued good work of Foucs:HOPE, the riot’s only relevance to present-day issues is as a massive rationalization for the status quo.

And Coleman Young, well, this may surprise many in metro Detroit, but he’s been dead for 14 years. His corpse will neither fix nor make worse the city’s deficit.

No one should ignore history, but sometimes past is just prologue. This region would benefit from setting some of Detroit’s most contentious historical issues on a shelf while focusing more on the next act.